The snake boat saga

Kerala: ‘The network of rivers, lakes and backwater canals’. Boats were the only way to get around and national water way three served as the mani aquatic super highway. The kettu Vallom were converted into luxurious house boats, there was one boat that did not quite fit in to the modern scheme of things. It was the chundan Vallom. Measuring well over 100 feet, it took an equal number to row it. The boats main feature is the chundu,a raised prow that rises more than 10 feet above the water like a snake’s hood. It is same as a serpent.

The story of its creation is equally fascinating. In the olden days, most kings used the waterfront as an arena to settle disputes. They used a wide variety of boats to ferry soldiers, supplies and to fight great naval wars. About 250 years ago, the kings of Ambalapuzha and Kayamakulam were at war. The Ambalapuzha asked the architect, Deavanarayana, to design a multipurpose war boat that could carry a lot of soldiers and fire cannons. Deavanarayana designed a long sleek vessel and introduced a revolutionary mechanism wherein the recoil of the cannon would propel the boat forward. When the Kayamakulam king learnt of this invention he demanded one for himself. But the loyal architect reversed the firing mechanism in such a way that the boat would move in the opposite direction in which the shot was fired.

Over the years, the war was resolved but the chundan Valloms remained. To keep up the fierce competitive spirit, they were put to race. In place of the cannon stand two people who beat the odithatta (fire platform) with logs to maintain the rowing rhythm. Twenty five singers sing the vanchippattu (songs of the boatman), the chant of ‘arpu irroh’ drives a hundreds thdazhikar to coordinated frenzy. The snake boat race is the largest team sport in the world. Vallamkali as it is called begins during the harvest festival of Onam. Champakulam Moolam Boat race, the oldest snake boat race in Kerala, is held on the day the deity at Ambalapuzha’s Sree Krishna Temple was installed. As the story, goes, when Jawaharlal Nehru visited Kerala in1952, four traditional chundan Vallom went from Kottayam to Alappuzha to receive him. A mock snake boat race was also organized in his honor. Nehru was so fascinated that when he went back to Delhi, he sent a gleaming silver trophy for a boat race, which was duly named after him. Some say that as Nehru watched the spectacle from raised platform on the Punnamada Lake, he became so excited that he jumped right in to one of those boats. Even, today, boats race a one and a half km stretch in four columns on the second Saturday of August, in memory of the 1952 welcoming party. The Nadubagam chundan, which was one of the four boats race, still participate.